Update – I originally posted this back on September 7th, 2008. Update at bottom of the post.

Shemeeka Davis of Antioch, California was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder and child abuse of a 15-year-old girl that was under her care. She was apparently not only abusing the girl but her 15-year-old twin brother as well as Davis’ 7-year-old daughter as well according to SFGate.Com.

All three children were under her care and she has been arrested on suspicion of murder, three counts of felony corporal punishment and enhancements for causing great bodily harm. The girl, Jazzmin Davis, was continually whipped with belts and electrical cords, burned with irons and severely beaten. She was malnourished to the point of emaciation and suffered severe lacerations and blunt force trauma to the head according to Antioch Police.

One of their neighbors said that she hadn’t seen Jazzmin in over a year and when she asked Shemeeka about it she was told that Jazzmin had been sent to live with other family members.

In addition to being their foster mother, Shemeeka is/was also their aunt. She has apparently been cooperative and admitted to beating and whipping the twins. What the heck makes people do shit like this?

Davis has been receiving $43,304 a year from a combination of stipends for the children’s care, caring for her elderly mother as well as money from the federal section 8 housing assistance program. Christ, $43k a year in fucking welfare? My wife teaches and it took her 8-10 fucking years to make over $40 grand. I must be in the wrong business. Maybe it’s time to move to California and live off of welfare.

Davis has been the twins’ foster mother since their infancy. Their case was being handled through the San Francisco County Department of Human Services, Orman said.

Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, said the agency had conducted the required regular checks on the children’s welfare and had detected no evidence of abuse or neglect. The most recent visit to the home was in March 2008, Rhorer said – six months more recent than earlier reported by Antioch police. Records also indicated that both twins were still enrolled in school, Rhorer said. Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Deborah Sims said Jazzmin was withdrawn from school by family members last October.

“It’s troubling when, in reviewing the case file, it appears that we’ve done everyhing that was within our power to protect thse kids and others from abuse and neglect,” Rhorer said.

He also clarified that Shemeeka Davis had petitioned in August to become the children’s legal guardian, and that there had not been an adoption hearing scheduled last week, as police reported.

From the article I linked to above it says that law enforcement are looking for the children’s father. An entire family of winners here! Jason Lawson Davis was getting supervised visits with his children by is currently wanted by the California Department of Corrections for a parole violation.

Update – When Jazzmin Davis was found in her aunt’s house she was found nude, her emaciated and scarred body lay on the floor of a bedroom she had been confined to. According to the coroner’s report she died of severe malnutrition, exacerbated by multiple blunt-force injuries and burns. The Contra Costa County coroner’s report was released earlier this week.

Her aunt Shemeeka Davis still sits in jail facing charges of murder, torture and child abuse in the death of Jazzmin as well as torture and child abuse charges for treatment of Jazzmin’s twin brother. If she is convicted Davis could end up facing life in prison.